Recipes and food fun from Apt 3N

There’s a lot going on in today’s post. Firstly, we’re talking vegetable peelers and a giveaway! My good friend’s husband has started a company selling premium kitchen products, with their first being this awesome curved Japanese blade vegetable peeler! Using mine was a breeze – the sharp blade made for smooth cuts and the design definitely required less pressure from the hand doing the peeling. The sprout remover on either side helped get those little “eyes” out. I tackled these buds in no time. I will say, though, if you are used to the vertical peelers, it may take some getting used to. But as with any sharp edge, take care to curl the fingers of your supporting hand away while using!Because this is such a great product and think you guys would love it, too, we are giving one away! To enter, simply comment on my FB page responding to this question: What’s the first thing you would use ChefBasix Vegetable Peeler for?Good luck!Secondly, we’re talking about ghee – clarified butter that South Asians use to cook (some dishes) with. It doesn’t have the milk solids of butter, so it has a higher burning temperature. This picture shows how it happens. After melting the butter over low heat, you keep it on until it attains this golden color, not the amber color you would look for while making browned butter. We are just looking for the milk solids in the butter to toast up to give the ghee a nice nutty flavor. You don’t want to get to that light brown stage, otherwise you will lose too much moisture. Once you’ve gotten the right color, take it off the heat. You can let it cool in the pot, but I poured it into this bowl to show you what was going on. The milk solids sink to the bottom so you only spoon off the fluid on top. Left to cool long enough it will congeal and resemble the store bought ghee. This last step is not totally necessary in today’s dish, as we are not cooking with the ghee. It’s more for aesthetic purposes so you don’t have bits of brown running through the mashed potatoes (don’t toss it, though! spoon it over toast for a snack!). Finally, we are talking about aloo bhorta (mashed potatoes)! It seems like potatoes are a universal comfort food. When coming back from a family trip, or on days when we were low on groceries, dinner looked like this: steamed rice, aloo bhorta, an omelette and daal. South Asian immigrant parents have an almost militant attitude toward eating out. Take out was a non-existent concept. As newcomers, our parents had to reign with frugality. Though we were brats about it and whined about wanting pizza or burgers, our parents did the hard work of making every single meal from scratch. The aloo bhorta and omelette were studded with pieces of raw onion and slivers of green chilis. Most of my time during those meals were spent picking out the aforementioned bits to get to the good stuff. I was never a part of the set-my-mouth-ablaze-to-enjoy-my-meal set. So now, since I’m in charge of my kitchen, I’ve started to substitute scallion for the raw onion and dried red chili for the fruity spice of the green chili (or Thai chili as it’s known to some). The dried red chili still has some heat – just not as explosive as its green counterpart.

Traditionally, the potatoes are mixed by hand with mustard oil, salt, the onions and chilis. Individuals will later add as much or as little ghee atop the potatoes as they like to their portion. However, my many years of making and eating American style mashed potatoes would not allow me to serve a butter-barren bowl of spuds. It just needs the silkiness that butter imparts! Definitely mix by hands to achieve the full effect. I wore gloves, though, to protect my eczema prone hands from the heat. Though these are mustard and chili mashed potatoes, the mustard that’s used is in the form of oil, rather than the paste. I’ve never made it with the paste, but if you have trouble locating mustard oil, definitely feel free to use the powder or paste (starting with a 1/2 tsp and working your way up).

Ingredients

2 lbs Russet potatoes, peeled and quartered

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 1/2 tbsps mustard oil

1 tsp salt (plus more to taste)

3 scallions, sliced thinly

2 dried chilis (3 if you like it HOT)

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Carefully lower the potatoes in and let cook for about 20 minutes. Drain in a colander and set aside.

While the potatoes cook, add the butter to a small saucepan and cook over low heat until melted and the butter becomes golden and fragrant. Turn off the heat and let cool.

In a dry non stick skillet or cast iron skillet, toast the chilis over medium high heat for 2-3 minutes. You should see the oil on the surface and the aroma emerge. Set aside.

Add the cooked potatoes to a large bowl. Season with mustard oil and salt. Mash together with a potato masher. Add the scallions, chilis, and 4 tbsps of the clarified butter. Mix by hand, using your fingertips to break apart the chilis, until everything is uniformly distributed. Taste to see if the seasoning is just right. Serve with an extra dollop of the clarified butter.

Is rhubarb out of season yet? I am way behind with this post, I know. I have been behind on life, in general, as of late. So even though I made my husband track down rhubarb when the season for it first came around (it is surprisingly difficult to find around these parts) and serendipitously also had some delicious, though overripe, Haitian mangoes on hand to make this weeks ago…I am only now sharing it with you. Sad face.

I know the combination of rhubarb, overripe mangoes, anise seeds and mustard oil aren’t ingredients most people have on hand most of the time. But as we near the end of rhubarb season, I hope you can still attempt to make this chutney. Or at least save it for next year.

I know most people tend to make some sort of rhubarb/strawberry pastry this time of year but something strange has happened to me recently. My sweet tooth has faded. Maybe I’ve made one too many cookies. But for some reason, butter rich, sugar filled treats just don’t give me the same satisfaction it used to. Not to say I’ve shunned them for good. I still taste test what I make and indulge when I go out with my girlfriends. Anyway, I was looking for something a bit more savory, and palatable for the rest of the clan. This was probably one of my most successful experimentations. It was annihilated at my in-laws’. Reduced to half in my own home overnight. It just hit every note. Admittedly, there is a lot of sugar in this, but only because the rhubarb was so darn tart. I don’t regularly have rhubarb, I don’t know if they range in tartness, but the tartness of this batch rivaled any lemon. If yours is less tart, feel free to start out with a smaller amount of sugar, and add more as needed.

Ingredients

1 tbsp mustard oil

1 pinch anise seeds or pach forom

1/2 red onion, diced

3 stalks of rhubarb, leaves and ends trimmed, diced into 1 in pieces

4-5 dried red chilis (less for mild heat)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 tsp salt

pulp of 2 overripe mangoes, preferably the haitian variety

Directions

Heat oil over medium high heat in a medium saucepan. Add the anise seeds or pach forom and fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add rhubarb, chilis, sugar, vinegar, salt and mango pulp. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cover.

I’m not a pickle/relish/chutney person. My husband is not a turkey-with-all-the-fixin’s kind of guy. So this is how I strive to compromise. You see, I am hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year. It will be pretty small, just my family and his. But there are a few characters in this production who absolutely do not enjoy anything outside the rice and curry/biryani paradigm. So, my spread will look something like this: roast turkey (brined in buttermilk, stuffed with orange, garlic, thyme and sage flavorings), my mother in law’s khichuri, mashed potatoes, salad, either a green bean casserole or sweet potato dish, and this relish. I love cranberry sauce, but in order to make it more palatable for my husband, his brother, and my dad, I thought I’d prepare it according to the traditional Bengali method for achar (non vinegar based relish). It’s sweet, spicy, and tart all at the same time. Obviously cranberries aren’t available in Bangladesh, but they remind me of this other berry like fruit that they do use for achar. The result was pretty good!Mustard oil is not so common in American grocery stores, but if you’ve made the trip to an Asian grocery to get any of the other ingredients required in this (dried red peppers, pach forom), you’ll definitely find the mustard oil. The second it hits the heat, a wonderful aroma fills the whole house. If you can’t find it – don’t fret. Make it with vegetable or olive oil. The result will be a much more mellow relish. Then come all the other aromatics: pach forom, garlic, and red pepper. The seeds will start to pop once they get heated through…time to quickly add the other ingredients!When working with the red peppers, simply snap them in two with your fingers and dump all the seeds out onto the cutting board. Then, when you add them to the hot oil, stand back and prepare for a pepper onslaught on your sinuses! Make sure your vent is going and windows are open, otherwise you’ll find yourself and the rest of your family members in a coughing fit. At this point, I know what you’re thinking: this is really, really weird. And I’ll admit – it’s not for everybody. But if occasionally you find yourself longing for the sweet and spicy relishes of your childhood, this will definitely hit the spot! We would normally serve this with rice or luchi, but I’m sure it would be great on toast. You can make this with pach forom (which I’ve discussed before here) or with anise or fennel seed (which I actually prefer, since the black seeds in pach forom are a bit strong for me). Hope you try this if you’re looking to spice up the usual cranberry sauce! I would love to hear about your Thanksgiving traditions!

Ingredients

12 oz fresh cranberries

1 cup water or orange juice

1 tbsp mustard oil (or olive oil)

1 pinch pach forom or anise seeds or fennel seeds

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 dried red peppers, cut in half, de-seeded

2 tsp salt (or to taste)

5 tbsp sugar or molasses (or to taste)

1 pinch chili powder

Directions

Place the cranberries and juice/water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. As soon as the cranberries start to pop, remove from heat.

In a medium (9 or 10in) nonstick skillet, heat the msutard oil over medium high heat. Add the pach form or anise/fennel seeds. Once they start to pop, add garlic and chili. Heat through, until fragrant (about 30 seconds). Add all of the cranberries, along with the juices to the skillet. Season with salt, sugar, and chili powder. Give it all a stir and lower the heat to medium. Let it cook through, until liquid reduces and mixture thickens (not completely: it will continue to thicken off the heat), about 5-7 minutes. Check for seasoning.

Remove from heat. Let it cool. Store in a glass jar or other container. Refrigerate. Consume within two weeks.